Fantasy football game and method of playing same

ABSTRACT

A fantasy football game, a method, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for playing fantasy football. The fantasy football game can be played by participants who select coaching staffs from actual football teams such that statistical results or related performance indicia achieved during on-field play by one or more respective actual football teams are used to represent each participant in a virtual football game against at least one other participant. Wins and losses for the fantasy football games occur by calculating a total of each individual fantasy player&#39;s points and comparing them either in head-to-head or total point total formats. Metrics of the actual weekly on-field performance by a corresponding team can be used to gauge participant success, where such metric is based generally on a quantified value of coaching contributions to that team&#39;s on-field success. A more particular form of the metric involves using an adjustment to yards per pass attempt to take into consideration coaching play designs.

This application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/174,135, filed Apr. 30, 2009.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus forparticipating in a fantasy league of virtual football teams whereparticipant success is determined by quantifying coaching attendant tothe results of actual football games.

The popularity of collegiate and professional sports has led to a broadrange of secondary competitions based on the outcome of particular gamesor related contests, as well as individual player performances withinsuch game or contest. Fantasy sports leagues, especially those relatingto football and baseball, are a common version of such secondarycompetition, where participants accrue points based on the actualon-field performance of such players. Fantasy leagues are typically madeup of anywhere from a few to as many as dozens of teams. In fantasyfootball leagues, each of the participants (typically called managers,owners or the like) can organize teams, determine game strategies andtest their skill at running a football team. Generally, one person isselected or volunteers to be the league commissioner; this person hasresponsibility for setting or administering the rules under which theleague participants compete against each other, as well as providing ormaintaining player statistics, league standings and related informationto the participants. Some leagues are created solely for itsparticipants' amusement, while others play for money or prizes in apari-mutuel style system for the participant that accumulates the mostpoints, highest score or some related indicia of success. In leagueswhere money or prizes are awarded, each commissioner is generally alsotasked with collecting league fees (for example, registration fees,statistics service fees or the like) and disbursing such prizes ormoney.

In a typical fantasy football league, each participant selects, draftsor otherwise acquires a composite team with the names of actual footballplayers to fill out his or her team roster. Points, money or otherscoring indicia are awarded to each participant based on the statisticalperformance of selected actual players involved in actual games over thecourse of the football season. In this way, if a fantasy leagueparticipant has a certain actual player on his or her fantasy teamroster, the statistical performance of that player in any given actualfootball game is imputed to the participant's fantasy team. Traditionalindicia of a player's performance may (depending on the position played)include points, touchdowns, touchdown passes, touchdown catches, rushingyards, passing yards, tackles, interceptions or the like. Thesestatistics may be tracked and used to award points to the participants'fantasy teams on a game-by-game basis. As such, a participant in afantasy league typically accumulates a win-loss record by competing headto head against each of the other participants in the league, where in avirtual game between two fantasy teams, the participant whose players inthe aggregate accumulated better statistical numbers in thecorresponding actual on-field play from the previous game or games isdeclared the winner. Leagues are typically arranged in which the overallwinner is the participant that compiles the best win-loss record overthe course of the regular season, or the one who has accumulated themost total points by the end of the season. The fantasy participant orparticipants with the best record over the course of the season mayadditionally be involved in a playoff that mimics the attributes of acollegiate or professional football championship model.

While these conventional approaches to participating in a fantasyfootball game are being enjoyed by many, they do not take full advantageof all that an underlying actual football game has to offer.Specifically, by not appropriating the design edge that football coachescan bring to their team's on-field performance, the effectiveness offantasy football games of the prior art is limited. Thus, what is neededis a way to play fantasy football where the participants can take intoconsideration the coaches' contributions (either with or instead of) theplayers' contributions as a measure of the participants' fantasy teamsuccess.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This need is met by the present invention where according to one aspectthereof, a fantasy football game is disclosed. The fantasy game can beplayed by two or more participants, and includes quantifying coachingbased on results derived from one or more actual football games.Statistical metrics taken from the on-field play can be used tocorrelate coaching staff performance. As will be discussed in moredetail below, the inventors have discovered that one metric inparticular provides a strong correlation with how well a football teamperforms.

Optionally, a participant from among the numerous participants whosefantasy football team achieves a highest measure of the quantifiedcoaching value is declared a winner of the game. In the present context,terms such as “value”, “measure”, “metric” and their variants areunderstood to provide some degree of objective indicia of success ingeneral and a gauge for quantifying coaching in particular. Thus, whensuch a value, measure or metric associated with a particular fantasy oractual coaching staff is discussed, it is meant to provide some way toobjectively compare such staff to others such that a staff achieving asuperior (generally higher) value, measure or metric will be indicativeof a winning fantasy league participant.

In a preferred optional form, the fantasy game can be structured as acompetition between two participants that mimics the head-to-headcompetition in the one or more underlying actual football games, whilein another form, the fantasy game can be structured as a competitionbetween some or all of the participants in such a way that points areawarded to the participants commensurate with the quantified measure ofperformance achieved by each of their selected teams from any givenweek. In another option, each participant's fantasy football team ismade up of at least a fantasy offensive or defensive coaching staff thatcorresponds to a coaching staff of an actual professional football team.The inventors have determined that using a metric attributable to afootball team's offensive coaching staff can be particularly indicativeof that team's on-field success. In such a circumstance, the fantasyteam offensive coaching staff can have its performance quantifiedthrough the performance of a corresponding actual (i.e., on-field)football team to allow objective judging against other fantasy leagueparticipants. In a preferred form, this quantified performance is ameasure of human capital engaged in play design (as will be discussed inmore detail below), and that difference between various participant'sperformance metrics is a useful tool by which to quantify the coachingcontribution to overall human capital for the purposes of determining awinner from among various participants in the fantasy football game.

In a more particular form, the measure of human capital engaged in playdesign is made up of adjusted yards per pass attempt (YPA) in general,and more specifically to a first adjusted YPA that is derived from afirst participant's respective offensive unit performance in one or moreactual underlying football games, as well as a second adjusted YPA thatis derived from an opposing participant's fantasy offensive unitperformance. In this way, not only are the efforts of the firstparticipant's offensive coaching staff accounted for, but so are theefforts of his or her defensive coaching staff by virtue of how a secondparticipant's own offensive unit was able to perform in on-field playagainst the first participant's defensive unit in the underlying game orgames. Stated another way, a particular fantasy team measure of successcan be derived (in a first team) solely from the difference betweenoffensive coaching staff values of two participants engaged in a fantasyhead-to-head play format, or in a second form by the highest scoredifferential in each participant's offensive and defensive coachingstaff values. The present inventors have determined that the adjustmentmentioned above in conjunction with YPA would more accurately take intoconsideration the coaching contributions made through innovative playdesign. This adjusted YPA may be thought of as traditional YPA numbersthat are augmented by touchdown passes and reduced by sack yards, aswill be discussed in more detail below. The present inventors havedetermined that such augmentations and reductions are descriptive ofcoaching design innovation, while other factors, such as breakdowns inon-field play, can be used to further refine this quantified indicia ofcoaching contribution. Particular types of breakdowns that areespecially disruptive of the coaching contribution include turnovers andspecial teams play. These too will be discussed in more detail below.

As stated above, participant scoring can be based on head-to-headcomparisons of offensive coaching staffs. The participant coaching staffselection can likewise be for an entire team's coaching staff of aportion thereof, such as an offensive unit that corresponds to anoffensive coaching staff of an actual football team, a defensive unitthat corresponds to a defensive coaching staff of the same or anotheractual football team, a special teams unit, or the like. For example, inthe case where one or more participants have selected fantasy offensiveand defensive units that correspond to offensive and defensive coachingstaffs from actual teams, such participant or participants may thencorrelate the aforementioned performance indicia of the offensive anddefensive coaching staffs of the actual football team during theirrespective actual football game or games with one or more of theoffensive and defensive units of the fantasy team of one or moreparticipants. In this way, a strong offensive or defensive performanceby a particular actual football team, which provides indicia of coachingstaff play design, will tend to produce a higher score for a fantasyfootball participant's corresponding fantasy football team than would aweak performance by that same actual on-field football team. In thepresent context, an offensive coaching staff on an actual team may bemade up of one or both of the head coach and the offensive coordinator,although other coaches (such as the line coach, receiver coach, runningback coach or the like) may also be included. Likewise, a defensivecoaching staff on an actual team may be made up of one or both of thehead coach and the defensive coordinator, with the line coach,linebacker coach and defensive back coaches or the like optionallyincluded. As with using a first and second adjusted YPA that are derivedfrom a respective first and second participant's offensive unitperformance in one or more actual underlying football games as discussedabove, a strong quantifiable measure of coaching staff performance canbe the difference between a given participant's offensive and defensivestatistics, where the defensive coaching staff measure corresponds tothat which is achieved by the on-field offense of the actual team thatopposes the defense represented by that participant's chosen defensivecoaching staff.

Because a fantasy football team used by a participant in any given weekneed not be made up of an offensive unit and a defensive unit from thesame actual football team, the fantasy team coaching units may become ahybrid or composite of actual on-field coaching staffs, much in the sameway as fantasy teams of players make up a composite team or roster inother fantasy sports leagues. Thus, for example, a fantasy participantin a game according to the present invention might “draft” or otherwiseselect the offensive coaching staff of the Indianapolis Colts torepresent that fantasy participant in a particular fantasy game, whilealso selecting the defensive coaching staff of the Pittsburgh Steelersto represent him or her in the same or another fantasy football game. Insuch case where the participant's fantasy team corresponds to coachingstaffs from two different National Football League (NFL) franchises suchas the two mentioned above, the participant can be considered to beusing a hybrid coaching staff. In this way, a hybrid (i.e., composite)team or coaching staff imputes to the fantasy participant only thoseperformance measures that correspond to the respective coaching staffrather than the whole team. In that way, if the fantasy participantselects for use the Indianapolis Colts offensive coaching staff and thePittsburgh Steelers defensive coaching staff for a particular fantasygame, and the actual Colts have a particularly bad defensive performancein the underlying actual football game, their poor performance won'tadversely impact the participant's fantasy score, as it is only theColts offensive coaching staff performance that concerns the participantfor that given game. As discussed above, the fantasy coaching staff maybe made up of just an offensive coaching staff. In such a variant, thefantasy team coaching staff need not be a hybrid, but can instead berepresented by a single coaching staff from an actual (i.e., on-field)team.

Furthermore, the participant selection of the offensive and defensiveunits that will be used to represent such participant in any givenweek's fantasy football league competition can be made from numeroussuch units that have been previously drafted by the participant. Thus,in leagues that have more actual teams to choose from than there arenumber of participants, each participant will be able to have numerousoffensive and defensive units from which to select. For example, ifthere are thirty two teams in an actual football league (such as in theNFL, as presently configured), then there will be thirty two offensivecoaching staffs and thirty two defensive coaching staffs. Moreover, ifthere are eight participants in a given fantasy football league, eachparticipant will be entitled to draft four offensive units and fourdefensive units such that all of the offensive and defensive coachingstaffs of the actual football teams will be accounted for. Likewise, ina fantasy league with four participants, each will be able to drafteight offensive units and eight defensive units, and in a fantasy leaguewith sixteen participants, each will be able to draft two offensiveunits and two defensive units. In situations where the fantasy leaguerules permit it, participants with multiple such units will be able toplay more than one team in any given week.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method of playing afantasy football game is disclosed. As discussed above, a fantasyfootball game is a simulated competition between fantasy teams (orportions thereof) selected by various fantasy league participants, wherean actual game includes on-field (also referred to herein ason-the-field) performance by a collegiate or NFL football team that isused to provide the statistics for the fantasy league participants.Likewise, a fantasy football league may be a formal arrangement among aset number of member participants, or an ad hoc group with access to acommon database, scoring system and ranking system or the like. Themethod includes selecting a coaching staff that corresponds to an actualfootball team coaching staff, then correlating performance indicia ofthe corresponding actual football team during their respective actualfootball game or games with the one or more participant's fantasy teamcoaching staff.

The method may further include comparing the fantasy team score for eachof the participants whose respective fantasy team coaching staffs arematched up against each other in the actual underlying football game. Inthis way, a victory or win can be awarded to the participant with thehigher fantasy team score. Because fantasy points are awarded based onan aggregate of certain performance indicia, such as individualstatistics, group (i.e., linebackers, running backs or the like)statistics or the like, the on-field performance of the actual footballteam that the individual player or group of players represents may ormay not be equated with the fantasy participant's team success.

Additional options include calculating a difference in performanceindicia between a first participant's fantasy team offensive coachingstaff and a second participant's fantasy team offensive coaching staffas a way to correlate performance indicia. One or both of the first andsecond participants' fantasy team offensive coaching staff performanceindicia may be based on an adjusted YPA that is achieved by a respectiveoffensive unit in the underlying actual football game or games. In amore particular form, the adjusted YPA is a combination of a particularoffensive unit's passing yards accumulated during the actual footballgame, plus a weighted value of the number of touchdown passesaccumulated by the particular offensive unit during the actual footballgame, less the number of yards lost by the particular offensive unitwhen its quarterback is sacked attempting to pass during the actualfootball game, all divided by the number of pass attempts by theparticular offensive unit during the actual football game. Such anadjusted YPA (referred to herein as QCYPA) can be used as a way toquantify the coaching contribution to a team's success. This adjustedYPA can be offset by subtracting a value for at least one of (a)turnovers, (b) failed field goal attempts within a predetermineddistance, (c) touchdowns allowed on any special teams play such as apunt or kickoff and (d) touchdowns scored by an opposing participant'sdefense. In the present context, the turnovers, field goal attempts andtouchdowns may include both plural and singular such events.

The fantasy team coaching staff method may be made up of one or more ofa fantasy team offensive staff that corresponds to an offensive coachingstaff of an actual professional football team and a fantasy defensivecoaching staff that corresponds to a defensive coaching staff of anactual professional football team. Further, the correlating performanceindicia comprises correlating performance indicia of both the offensiveand defensive coaching staffs, where the defensive coaching staffperformance indicia comprises YPA achieved by a team opposing an actualteam that is representative of the defensive coaching staff in the oneor more actual football games. The method may additionally includecomparing a fantasy team score for each of the various participantswhose respective fantasy team coaching staffs are matched up againsteach other in the actual football game or games, and then awarding avictory to the participant with a higher the fantasy team score.Participating in a fantasy football league may include playing a virtualfootball game among participants in a fantasy football league. Suchleague may substantially mimic that of an actual league (such as theNFL) in terms of coaching staffs, players, or other parts of one or moreactual teams upon which the various fantasy teams are based.

Moreover, each participant can operate on a computer network system,telephonic system (including mobile or cellular phones, personal digitalassistants (PDAs)) or related communication interface. In this way, eachparticipant uses a client or other remote communication means to accessinformation to, or take action on, the participant's fantasy team. Moreparticularly, the participant can use the system to play a fantasy(i.e., virtual) game run by a league commissioner or relatedadministrator that is operating the controller on the network. Thesystem may include a host or central computer-based controller, a datainput, a data output, a communications link and a computer usable mediumonto which software or a related algorithm pertaining to a fantasyfootball team or league can be placed or operated. A data storage medium(for example, a statistical database) can be accessed by the hostcomputer, either by direct integral cooperation between them (in thecase where the medium is memory that is part of the computer, forexample), or by remote connection, such as between the host computer anda separate (for example, fee-based) data storage and retrieval service.In either case, the medium can store player, coaching staff and relatedgame performance statistics that can then be used to correlate actualon-field performance to the score values used by the fantasyparticipant.

According to still another aspect of the invention, an article ofmanufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readableprogram code embodied therein for causing a processor-controlled systemto perform a method for operating a fantasy football league isdisclosed. Teams within the league are based upon actual professionalfootball team coaching staffs, while relevant performance statistics arederived from the on-field execution of the plays that are designed bysuch actual coaching staffs. A virtual football game according to thisaspect of the invention can be played by two or more participants (suchas those participating in a common fantasy football league). Eachparticipant is represented in the virtual football game by a fantasycoaching staff that is in turn representative of an actual coachingstaff for an actual underlying football game such that statisticsachieved by a football team playing for the actual coaching staff areimputed to the respective participant through the fantasy coachingstaff. The computer readable program code in the article of manufactureis made up of computer readable program code portion for causing acomputer to accept, read in, download or otherwise receive the achievedstatistics for the participant. The computer readable program code alsoincludes a portion for causing the computer to determine a fantasy teamscore for the participant.

Optionally, the computer readable program code further comprises acomputer readable program code portion for notifying the participant whoachieves the highest of the fantasy team scores. The computer readableprogram code in the article of manufacture further comprises a computerreadable program code portion for calculating a quantifiable measure ofthe fantasy coaching staff's contribution to the statistics. Asdiscussed above in conjunction with the previous aspects, thequantifiable measure of the fantasy coaching staff's contribution to thestatistics comprises an adjusted YPA achieved by an offensive unit inthe actual underlying football game. The computer usable medium mayinclude one or more of a hard disk drive, compact disk, digital videodisk, floppy disk and flash memory. The computer readable program codemay be configured to access a database that includes statistics from oneor more of the actual underlying football game or games.

Participants in the league can interact remotely through a terminal inthe form of a client device that is connectable to a network. Theseremote client devices function in a manner well-known in the computer,internet and related electronic communications art. Thus, the hostcontroller can, through the network to which it is coupled, solicit andaccept from each participant an initial selection (i.e., drafting) offantasy team coaching staffs and players, as well as be responsive to aparticipant request to access the database and report statistics, teamand league status information or the like. Examples of such devicesinclude conventional keyboards as well as graphical user interfaces(GUIs) that can accept user input and deliver user output directlythrough displays, icons or related active interfaces formed on acomputer screen, personal digital assistant, cellular phone or relatedcommunication device.

In the article, the computer readable program code includes means forcausing a computer or related automated processing device (either ofwhich that may act as a server, host controller or even a remote clientdevice connected to one another over the network) to perform theoperations necessary to run the fantasy league. This in turn may includekeeping individual or team statistics and fantasy league standings,correlating on-field player statistics to fantasy coaching staffperformance, as well as other functions. The program code means may bein the form of code routines, subroutines, segments, portions or thelike to ensure proper execution of the command contained in those means.The program code recorded on the medium can perform numerous functions,including (but not limited to) listing available participants, acceptingparticipant input, keeping track of the various participants' teams,displaying information pertaining to current league status, moneyinvested, prizes won or the like. In addition, the computer readableprogram code may include, or have access to, one or more databases thatprovide statistical information about actual teams and players. Suchdatabases may be part of a fee-based subscriber service.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention can be best understood when read in conjunction withthe following drawings, where like structure is indicated with likereference numerals and in which:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a trading system according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a welcome screen for an exchange corresponding to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a login screen with fields for setting up a new member'saccount;

FIG. 4 shows a login screen for a previously-registered participant;

FIG. 5 shows the home screen of a registered trader that successfullylogged-in from the screens of FIG. 3 or 4; and

FIG. 6 shows a screen of the standings of a notional league of eightparticipants according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Football involves the use of the athletic skill of the players engagedin play execution and coaches engaged in play design. The inventors havediscovered that how well a team employs the aggregate of such executionand design in the pursuit of a victory on the field can be quantified.Specifically, the inventors have discovered that execution and designinput (measured, for example, in the form of efficiency) can becorrelated to the output (measured as productivity).

Because the relationship between execution and play design in footballis direct, increases in efficiency in one contributes to increases inefficiency of the other in a symbiotic way. Thus, as the coaching staffacquires better players, those players contribute to increasedefficiency through improved execution, which in turn causes theproductivity of the plays to increase. Likewise, as the coaching staffdesigns better plays, those plays contribute to increased efficiency inthe execution process and the productivity of the players. Using YPA asa starting place, the inventors have determined that their own syntheticmetric, called QCYPA, which includes the contribution of both theplayers and coaching staff, is a particularly accurate way to predictfootball team productivity, which in turn is a strong indicator of teamsuccess. This metric is expressed by the following equation:

$\begin{matrix}{{QCYPA} = \frac{{PY} + ( {{TD}*10} ) - {SY}}{PA}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

where PY equals the passing yards per game for a given team, TD equalsthe number of touchdowns thrown by that team per game, SY equals thenumber of yards lost by that team per game when attempting a pass, andPA equals the number of pass attempts by that team per game.Furthermore, QCYPA is a measure of playmaking efficiency, which isexpressed as:

$\begin{matrix}{\eta = \frac{{QCYPA} - K}{K}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

where K equals the historical, or expected, average YPA for professionalfootball (specifically, the NFL) since 1960. It will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art that the analysis used herein for professionalfootball is equally applicable to collegiate football. Moreover, thetotal efficiency η is equal to the entirety of human capital H in thegame:

η=H  (3)

which is the sum of human capital due to play design (i.e., coaching)H_(A) and human capital due to playmaking (i.e., execution) H_(Y) asfollows:

H=H _(A) +H _(Y)  (4A)

which can be rewritten as:

H _(A) =H−H _(Y)  (4B)

Because the direct relationship between H_(A) and H_(Y) results in asimultaneity problem in that a single equation is asked to solve twounknowns, the inventors determined that in order to come up with asolution, analyzing football (particularly NFL) data was not, in and ofitself, sufficient. To that end, the two contributions to the footballproduction process shown in Eqns. (4A) and (4B) above must be isolatedfrom one another in order to allow the contributions to be quantified.To do so, the inventors first identified a design that depends solely onH_(Y). Specifically, the inventors determined that baseball providesjust such a design.

To explain how H_(Y) can be derived for baseball and then equated toH_(Y) for football, the inventors discovered that a theory used ineconomics could be adapted to be used in a sports setting. A majorpremise of what is referred to in economics circles as New Growth Theoryis that technological change arises in a large part because ofintentional actions taken by people who respond to market incentives.This theory, which was first advanced in a 1990 paper entitledEndogenous Technological Change, found that the technological componentof knowledge, A, corresponded to a new design, and that there is noconceptual problem in measuring it, as it is merely a count of thenumber of new designs. The present inventors are of the belief thatthere has been no prior attempt to use such a growth model to separateplayer human capital (which cannot be copied) from the human capitalresponsible for play designs (which can be copied) as a model forquantifying the contribution of coaching to the latter.

Thus, by extending this belief about the contribution of designs tosuccess in the realm of sports, the present inventors have determinedthat baseball's design architecture is a constant, and as such, thereare no new architectures to be designed into the game. It follows, theinventors have determined that the technological (i.e., design, orcoaching) contribution to human capital (the aforementioned H_(A) inEqns. (4A) and (4B)) is equal to zero in baseball, as any intentionaleffort to change the design architecture of the game would be a waste ofa general manager's time. As such, no market incentive exists to createa new design architecture in baseball because the underlying two-on-onedesign architecture that defines baseball (the battery versus thehitter) is a constant. This conclusion does not mean that a baseballgeneral manager or field manager cannot make changes to the team thatwill increase (or decrease) the team's efficiency and productivity.Rather, the conclusion merely recognizes that the baseball generalmanager and field manager do not possess as many tools for makingchanges to the team as an NFL coach possesses. Stated another way,because baseball's design is a constant, a baseball general manager orfield manager can change the team's players, but cannot change theteam's plays. In contrast, an NFL coach can change the team's players,plays or both. In economic terms, a manager is exogenously involved in abaseball game, while an NFL coaching staff is endogenously involved in afootball game.

After identifying that the baseball design depends solely on H_(Y), thepresent inventors translated this into an equivalent football metric byequating a limit that is common to both sports, viz., the need toadvance a player toward the goal. For the present invention, such acommon limit is the one point that a run is worth to a baseball team isthe same as a first down is worth to a football team. At first, thisseems counterintuitive, as a run in baseball has a value on thescoreboard, while a first down does not. Nevertheless, as Table 1 shows,on average, a first down in football is worth approximately one point.

TABLE 1 Points Per First Down Ratio NFL Team Aggregate between 1960through 2006 Adjusted Year Points PATS Safeties Points 1^(st) downsRatio 1960 6049 701 26 5322 4648 1.145 1961 6926 820 22 6084 5291 1.1501962 6944 806 30 6108 5309 1.150 1963 6888 815 28 6045 5295 1.142 19646902 793 22 6087 5287 1.151 1965 6907 805 24 6078 5208 1.167 1966 7381839 14 6528 5674 1.151 1967 7733 909 26 6798 5872 1.158 1968 7682 877 286777 6019 1.126 1969 7635 872 28 6735 6136 1.098 1970 7010 772 22 62165749 1.081 1971 7048 786 22 6240 5891 1.059 1972 7372 811 24 6537 61001.072 1973 7081 754 24 6303 6032 1.045 1974 6618 733 20 5865 6211 .9441975 7495 834 34 6627 6686 .991 1976 7508 816 32 6660 6924 .962 19776733 741 22 5970 6620 .902 1978 8213 914 36 7263 7908 .918 1979 8989 99130 7968 8270 .963 1980 9178 1042 30 8106 8528 .951 1981 9262 1041 348187 8692 .942 1982 5080 557 20 4503 4772 .944 1983 9779 1104 38 86378702 .993 1984 9502 1075 30 8397 8657 .970 1985 9645 1073 34 8538 8593.994 1986 9193 1026 28 8139 8492 .958 1987 9071 1010 36 8025 8149 .9851988 9075 1004 52 8019 8474 .946 1989 9232 1024 44 8164 8409 .971 19909015 997 38 7980 7957 1.003 1991 8506 919 24 7563 7955 .951 1992 8391936 24 7431 7747 .959 1993 8377 876 46 7455 8125 .918 1994 9075 1009 268040 8333 .965 1995 10,314 1110 24 9180 9284 .989 1996 9805 1065 40 87008959 .971 1997 9957 1087 26 8844 8770 1.008 1998 10,215 1113 36 90668738 1.038 1999 10,324 1113 46 9165 8991 1.019 2000 10,254 1123 32 90999139 .996 2001 10,024 1088 20 8916 8934 .998 2002 11,097 1242 24 98319727 1.011 2003 10,666 1168 42 9456 9367 1.010 2004 11,000 1253 30 97179613 1.011 2005 10.556 1153 22 9381 9426 .995 2006 10,577 1166 24 93879404 .998 total 402,284 44,763 1384 356,137 353,067 1.009A first down's point value was determined for the period between 1960and 2006 by dividing the difference between the total points scored inthe NFL, points after touchdown (PATs) and safeties by the total numberof first downs made:

Ratio=(Points−PATs−Safeties)/First Downs  (5)

When calculated over this entire period using this formula, it can beseen that a first down is worth one point. As such, advancing a playertoward the goal, whether it is home plate for baseball or the end zonefor football, is worth one point, and therefore a measure of a team'ssuccess in satisfying its need to advance a player toward the goal. PATswere excluded because points from PATs are not a function of the teamadvancing the ball toward the end zone, but instead a “bonus” that ateam is virtually entitled to receive after the team has advanced theball to the end zone Likewise, safeties were excluded because pointsfrom safeties are a function of a team pushing an opponent back into theend zone, not from advancing the ball toward the end zone. Field goalswere included because they are a function of a team advancing the balltoward the end zone. Interception returns for touchdowns and otherso-called “defensive” or “special teams” touchdowns (e.g., punt returns,fumble returns, blocked kicks) were included because points from suchevents are the result of a team advancing the ball toward the end zoneafter an instantaneous change of possession.

Based on the foregoing common limit and the knowledge that H_(A) inbaseball is equal to zero, one can calculate the value of NFL playerhuman capital H_(Y) by multiplying an NFL team's offensive efficiency,which is quantified as a particular team's QCYPA as indicated in Eqns.(2) and (3), divided by ten (i.e., the theoretical maximum needed toadvance the ball down the field by achieving a first down) and thenmultiplying this by 0.400 and substituting the product for baseball's onbase percentage (OBP) in the above calculation, which is shown asfollows:

H _(Y)=[(0.400)(QCYPA)/10−0.333]/0.333  (6A)

This can be reconfigured as:

H _(Y)=[(120)(QCYPA)/10−100]/100  (6B)

to make the calculation consistent with the limit of the design space ofa football field, which is 120 yards long with two scoring zones (endzones) separated by a 100-yard non-scoring zone (the field of play). Thecalculation in Eqn. (6B) indicates that the value of NFL player humancapital H_(Y) is equal to the sum of the end zones and the non-scoringfield of play multiplied by the aforementioned efficiency of the teamfor Eqn. (2), less the non-scoring field of play divided by thenon-scoring field of play.

By way of a comparative example, if the San Francisco 49ers′ humancapital H_(Y) uses its resources (downs) to meet its needs (10 YPA) at a95% rate and the New York Yankees' human capital H_(Y) uses itsresources (outs) to meet its needs (0.400 OBP) at a 95% rate as measuredby reference to a common limit (i.e., one point), the 49ers′ use oftheir resources to meet their needs is equal to the Yankees' use oftheir resources to meet their needs. It follows that the 49ers′efficiency η_(49er) and the Yankees' efficiency η_(Yankee) is the same.Under these circumstances, H_(Y) in football equals H_(Y) in baseball.

New Growth Theory assumes that anyone engaged in research had freeaccess to the entire stock of available technological knowledge A. Assuch, all researchers could take advantage of A at the same time(assuming that access to such knowledge was not controlled in such a wayas to limit its access). Accordingly, research output depended on theamount of human capital devoted to research H_(A) and the stock oftechnological knowledge A available to the person doing the research.The present inventors have determined that such assumptions can beapplied to football play-designing architectures. More particularly,consistent with the constraint of Eqns. (4A) and (4B), the research thatan NFL coaching staff contributes to how efficiently a team operates canbe determined by subtracting player human capital H_(Y) from total humancapital H.

Table 2 provides the value of total human capital H as the sum of theplay design and playmaking contributions for six representative NFLteams since 1960:

TABLE 2 Player Human Capital (H_(Y)) plus Coaching Design Human Capital(H_(A)) H_(A) + H_(Y) Team contribution Year (Record) YPA-YPA_(HA) ÷YPA_(HA) = to efficiency 1989 San Francisco 2.678 ÷ 6.813 = .3931 (14-2)2000 St. Louis 2.543 ÷ 6.813 = .3733 (10-6) 1961 Houston 2.461 ÷ 6.813 =.3612 (10-3-1) 1968 Kansas City 2.451 ÷ 6.813 = .3598 (12-2) 1988Cincinnati 2.350 ÷ 6.813 = .3449 (12-4) 1960 Philadelphia 2.202 ÷ 6.813= .3232 (10-2)

As Table 3 below demonstrates, at peak efficiency, a coaching staff'shuman capital H_(A), in the form of research and play design, accountsfor more than 25% of all efficiency in football, which exceeds the lessthan 15% contribution that a team can expect from player human capitalH_(Y) that was derived from Eqn. (6B):

TABLE 3 Coaching Research and Design Contribution to OffensiveEfficiency Team (Year) H − H_(Y) = NFL H_(A) NY Yankees (1927) .1441 SanFrancisco 49ers (1989) .3931 − .1389 = .2542 NY Yankees (1936) .1351 St.Louis Rams (2000) .3733 − .1227 = .2506 NY Yankees (1932) .1201 HoustonOilers (1961) .3612 − .1129 = .2483 Kansas City Chiefs (1968) .3598 −.1117 = .2481 NY Yankees (1939) .1111 Cincinnati Bengals (1988) .3449 −.0996 = .2453 NY Yankees (1937) .0961 Philadelphia Eagles (1960) .3232 −.0818 = .2414

It may be argued that the distinction between H_(A) and H_(Y) in the NFLcontext is an idealization, as there is some overlap about whatconstitutes human capital engaged in research or coaching and whatconstitutes human capital engaged in production or playing. In suchcircumstance, H_(A) and H_(Y) used in Eqns. (4A) and (4B) above can besupplied jointly by one person, such as a quarterback who uses a man inmotion to research a defense. Regardless, such allocation of whereresearch and design originates does not impact the fact that an NFLteam's research and design contributes more to success than play-makingcontributes. To conclude otherwise would produce anomalous results whenthe efficiency of football players is compared to the efficiency ofbaseball players. In the examples cited in Tables 2 and 3 above, BabeRuth, Lou Gehrig and their 1927 Yankees' teammates used their resources(outs) to meet their needs (runs) a little bit better (i.e., moreefficiently) than Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and their 1989 49ers′teammates used their resources (downs) to meet their needs (firstdowns). Nevertheless, when compared to the average team within eachteam's respective sport, San Francisco was 39.3 percent more efficientthan the average team whereas New York was only 14.4 percent moreefficient than the average team. As both the 49ers′ and the Yankees'efficiency was measured by reference to a common limit (i.e., playerhuman capital rather than coaching design) to account for the differencebetween the 49ers′ and Yankees' efficiency, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice andthe rest of the team would had to have been 25 percent better than BabeRuth, Lou Gehrig and their teammates even though the Yankees used theirresources to meet their needs a little better than the 49ers did. Thisis not possible, as San Francisco's player human capital cannotsimultaneously be both more efficient and less efficient in comparisonto the Yankees' human capital and the common limit.

To this point, the equations have only identified an input component;what is needed is a way to determine output. By looking at professionalfootball teams since 1960, the inventors have determined that theseinput components (in the form of efficiency) can be used to determinethe player and coaching productivity (output). The inventors believethat if coaching in football contributes a disproportionately largeshare to the efficiency of a team, then identifying and quantifying suchcoaching contributions provides an accurate description of a team'son-field success. Moreover, the increase in knowledge gained by theplayers that follow the play designs can lead to even greaterproductivity. As such, the equations discussed above can be modified todetermine the productivity of both player human capital engaged inproduction δH_(Y) and coaching human capital engaged in research anddesign δH_(A). This output can be readily correlated to known indicia(in particular, the scores generated in an actual on-field game orgames) that is a generally-acceptable measure of a team's success.Accordingly, the inventors believe that if coaching almost alwayscontributes at least twice as much to the efficiency of a team as playerhuman capital contributes, then more productive teams should defeat lessproductive teams. In addition, one would expect that the most efficientteams possess superior technological knowledge and a design edge on thefield. In the aforementioned economics paper, an equation fordetermining the productivity of human capital engaged in production inan economics context was expressed as

$\begin{matrix}{H_{Y} = {( {1/\delta} )\lbrack \frac{\alpha}{( {1 - \alpha - \beta} )( {\alpha + \beta} )} \rbrack}} & (7)\end{matrix}$

where the term δ defined a productivity parameter, and the terms α and βdefined technology parameters. An additional factor to take into accountinterest rates is not included in the above equation. The presentinventors have determined that a similar equation can be used in afootball context, where there are two primary forms of offensivetechnology with which to achieve success: passing and running.Specifically, in a passing-oriented design architecture, α can becorrelated to passing while β can be correlated to running, while in arunning-oriented system (such as Vince Lombardi's option blockingdesign), the parameters are inverted.

As discussed above, the present inventors believe that YPA forms aparticular valuable starting place for determining a team's offensivemeasure of success, making the passing technology component a moresignificant contributor to scoring success. To that end, we assigned theα parameter to QCYPA divided by 10 because the objective of thecorresponding a technology is to make a first down, which in the firstinstance requires a gain of 10 yards. Likewise, the β parameter in isequal to a team's average yards per rushing attempt (YRA) divided by onehundred because in the second instance, the objective of the βtechnology is still to make the first down, but the required yardage isunknown. Such assignment of the technology parameters is consistent withboth the limits of the design space (a first down is 10 yards and afootball field is 100 yards) and the fundamental nature of a designedstructure, where the fundamental units of such design are the decisionsused to create the final product. Based on the foregoing, Eqn. (7) canbe modified to determine the productivity of football player humancapital:

$\begin{matrix}{{\delta \; H_{Y}} = \frac{( {{QCYPA}/10} )}{\begin{matrix}( {1 - {{QCYPA}/10} - {{YRA}/100}} ) \\( {{{QCYPA}/10} + {{YRA}/100}} )\end{matrix}}} & (8)\end{matrix}$

A comparison of a passing-oriented team, the 1989 San Francisco 49ers(9.491 YPA), and a running-oriented team, the 1961 Green Bay Packers(4.983 YRA), demonstrates that an α passing design (such as Walsh'srhythm passing design) is more productive. As the comparison in Table 4below demonstrates, San Francisco's α passing design (i.e., where acorresponds to QCYPA and β corresponds to YRA) was approximately 43.5times more productive than Green Bay's a running design (where acorresponds to YRA and β corresponds to QCYPA). Based on the foregoing,Eqn. (8) is used to determine the productivity of football player humancapital in a passing-oriented system, as shown in Table 4:

TABLE 4 Comparison of Passing-oriented and Running-oriented offenses αPassing α Running .1α/(1 − .1α − .01β)(.1α + .01β) .1α/(1 − .1α −.01β)(.1α + .01β SF₈₉δH_(Y) = .9491/(.0110)(.9895) = 87.07% GB₆₁δH_(Y) =.4983/(.4197)(.5803) = 2.05%

In fact, as Table 5 below demonstrates, all of the NFL's most efficientteams from 1960-2006 were alpha passing teams except the 1968 KansasCity Chiefs, who ran the ball 1.98 times for every time they attempted apass. Consistently, Kansas City's player productivity was significantlyless than the player productivity of the other most efficient teams.

TABLE 5 Player Productivity (δH_(Y)) for Select NFL Teams TeamPoints/1^(st) Year (Record) Down α β δH_(Y) (%) 1989 San Francisco 1.1239.491 3.99 87.07 (14-2) 2000 St. Louis 1.247 9.356 4.81 57.99 (10-6)1961 Houston 1.515 9.274 4.20 31/26 (10-3-1) 1968 Kansas City 1.4804.147 9.26  1.66 (12-2) 1988 Cincinnati 1.111 9.163 4.81 26.69 (12-4)1960 Philadelphia 1.484 9.015 3.24 16.91 (10-2)In the above table, the α and β for the 1968 Kansas City Chiefs was YRAand QCYPA; for all of the remaining teams, these technology parameterswere reversed. As mentioned above, differences between offensive anddefensive coaching staff performance (where the latter can be measuredby how an opponent's offense performed in on-field play) are a goodmeasure of coaching contributions to a football team's success. Also asdiscussed above, such measure can be refined by taking intoconsideration breakdowns, particularly those in the form of turnoversand special teams play. Using Super Bowl performance as an indicator,overall the more productive team winning record is 36-5. Three teams whowere more productive but lost the Super Bowl turned the ball over morethan their winning opponents did (Cincinnati in 1982, Green Bay in 1998and St. Louis in 2002. Clearly, turnovers can waste productivity infootball. Special teams play can likewise impact productivity, whereonly two times has a team been more productive in the Super Bowl andbeen even in turnover margin and still lost the Super Bowl: Buffalo in1991 and Carolina in 2004. In both games, the outcome was decided by afield goal. In 1991, the more productive team (Buffalo) missed a 47-yardfield goal with 0:08 to play. In 2004, the less productive team (NewEngland) made a 41-yard field goal with 0:04 to play. Both turnovers andspecial teams play can reduce the impact of innovative play designs, and(if severe enough) can entirely negate such innovation by turning whatshould have been a victory into a loss. Viewed in this way, turnoversare by-products of production (i.e., play making (H_(Y))) and aretherefore not derived from coaching design (H_(A)). As such, theiroccurrence (while potentially devastating to a team's on-field success)do not impact the coaching contribution H_(A) discussed herein.

Like baseball, a field goal attempt depends entirely on player humancapital to the exclusion of any new designs. For at least the past 20years, every team in the NFL lines up substantially the same,substantially blocks the same, substantially snaps the ball the same,substantially holds the ball the same and substantially kicks the ballthe same. Stated in the vernacular of the present disclosure, H_(A)equals zero.

Ultimately, it is the productivity associated by the design provided bythe coaching staff that is of interest, and particularly how acompetition (such fantasy football game) based on quantified values ofsuch coaching contribution can be played. For a fixed value of H_(A)(which is equal to the difference between total human capital andplaymaking human capital as shown in Eqns. (4A) and (4B)), the impliedexponential growth rate for A, the stock of technological knowledge, isδH_(A). Thus, over time, A grows at the exponential rate of δH_(A). Inthe NFL context, this means a coaching staff's technological knowledgegrows at the exponential rate of the productivity of the staff'sresearch. Representative values of such research productivity for theteams shown in Tables 2 and 5 are shown in Table 6.

TABLE 6 NFL Research Productivity and Growth Rate Team Year (Record)δH_(Y) (%) ÷ H_(Y) = δ (%) × H_(A) = δH_(A) (%₎ 1989 San Francisco 87.07÷ .1389 = 626.85 × .2542 = 159 (14-2) 2000 St. Louis 57.99 ÷ .1227 =472.62 × .2506 = 118 (10-6) 1961 Houston 31/26 ÷ .1129 = 276.88 × .2483= 68 (10-3-1) 1968 Kansas City  1.66 ÷ .1117 = 14.86 × .2481 = 3 (12-2)1988 Cincinnati 26.69 ÷ .0996 = 267.17 × .2453 = 65 (12-4) 1960Philadelphia 16.91 ÷ .0828 = 206.72 × .2414 = 49 (10-2)

As shown above, the productivity of a staffs research δH_(A) can becalculated by dividing player human capital productivity δH_(Y) by theefficiency that player human capital H_(Y) contributes to the productionprocess to identify a team's productivity parameter δ. This productivityparameter is then multiplied by the research H_(A) that a coaching staffcontributes to the process. In 1989, as a result of the San Franciscocoaching staff's research, the 49ers′ technical football knowledge grewat the exponential rate of approximately 159%, giving them a significantdesign edge over the opposing team.

Because the coaching staff is not involved in contributing to H_(Y), itmust derive its measurement of statistical performance H_(A) from theon-field statistics provided by the playmakers. For example, aquarterback's statistical measures such as passing yards, passcompletions, completion percentage, interceptions and touchdown passescan be used in various weightings to determine a score that can beranked against others, as can rushing yards and touchdowns for runningbacks, receiving yards and touchdowns for wide receivers and tight ends,field goals and extra points for kickers may be included as part of thescoring formulae for those positions. While any or all of these measurescan be used to quantify the coaching contribution H_(A), the inventorsbelieve that YPA, especially an adjusted version that gives equivalentyardage credit for passing touchdowns while subtracting for sack yardage(and possibly a value for breakdowns, is particularly correlative toteam victories. As such, an H_(A) that is measured by the adjusted YPA(such as QCYPA mentioned in Eqn. (1)) can form the basis for quantifyingthe coaching contribution to a team's ability to produce victories.Moreover, variants of playing a fantasy football game depending onwhether the H_(A) contains solely offensive coaching staff metrics or isa combination of (i.e., difference between) offensive and defensivecoaching staff metrics are both within the scope of the presentinvention.

Referring first to FIG. 1, a device 1 (shown preferably in block form asa computer, or related automated data processing device, system orapparatus) for operating a fantasy football league or playing a fantasyfootball game is shown, as well as equipment designed to connect thedevice 1 to various fantasy football participants 200, 300 through N.Although shown notionally with the device 1 acting as a host, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that alternative hardwareenvironments (such as a more distributed system) may be used withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention, and as such, theprecise configuration of the device 1 presently depicted in FIG. 1 isnot intended to limit the present invention. In addition to keepingtrack of league participants 10 and what fantasy coaching staffs 20 thevarious participants mimic the ownership of, the device 1 can also storestatistical data or receive such data from a database 30 (such as thatavailable from a subscription source or related third-party vendor) thatis related to the actual on-field statistics generated by players andteams of the corresponding league (such as the NFL), calculate and storefantasy player indicia 40, keep records of fantasy league standings 50or the like. Device 1 is made up of one or more processing units (alsoknown as central processing units (CPUs)) 60, while one or more memorystorage units 70, 80 (typically in the form of volatile random accessmemory (RAM) and non-volatile read-only memory (ROM)) store programs,calculations and information pertaining to football team rosters,individual player statistics or the like. A controller 90 is included toorchestrate operations, while input/output (also referred to as I/O ordata input and output) 100 allows communication between device 1 andremote client devices 110. As stated above, these can be a computerkeyboard, touch screen or related terminal, telephonic system (includingmobile or cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs)), mouse,voice recognition system or other such communication device capable ofsending and receiving data and instructions, some of which are shown inthe figure. In this regard, the device 1 accepts structured input,processes it according to prescribed rules and produces the results ofthat processed input as output. Such interpretation is consistent withthe von Neumann architecture of a computer, which includes an input,output, memory, arithmetic logic unit (for example, the aforementionedmicroprocessor) and a central control unit to orchestrate operations. Inthis context, the PDA, telephone, pager or related devices discussedabove could be configured to operate as a rudimentary computer, and assuch would be within the scope of that term's present definition.

Either the device 1 or the various fantasy football participants 200,300 through N have access to the statistical database 30 of informationrelating to performance of players in actual games. Device 1 mayfunction as a server, where high throughput and processing speeds,larger data storage, durability and online availability would bedesirable attributes. As will be further understood by those skilled inthe art, device 1 may operate as part of a network, which may encompassvarious forms of connectivity between two or more machines, includingpoint-to-point, shared, dedicated, intermittent or the like. In oneform, device 1 may operate as part of the internet (also referred to asweb) 120 that relies upon hypertext protocols and language to facilitatecommunication between a server and a client. Hypertext markup language(HTML) can be used by web servers to create and connect documents thatcontain network addresses called hyperlinks, which allow a user tonavigate through a web site. For example, HTML functions as a mark-uplanguage that breaks the document into syntactic portions that specifylayout and content.

Resident in one or more of the memory storage units 70, 80 is executablesoftware, typically including interface code, algorithmic code, databasecode, and other code that is readable by the computer and contains allthe functions needed to operate the computer. As discussed above, thereare numerous optional configurations for the computer usable medium,including hard disk drive, compact disk (CD), digital video disk (DVD),floppy disk and flash memory that can be used as, or deliver codecontent to, memory storage units 70, 80. As such, the computer usablemedium can be resident in or otherwise cooperative with the device 1,while means for sending, receiving and storing fantasy league-relatedinformation may be embodied in computer software, firmware or hardware,and includes instructions that, in conjunction with the aforementionedcomputational componentry, can be used to coordinate the activitiesassociated with running a fantasy football league or facilitating theplay of a fantasy football game.

The device 1 may also include security and data integrity features 140that control access to the device 1, protect personal informationrelating to participants 200, 300 through N, as well as performauthentication and verification of transactions conducted by participant200, 300 through N. Encryption protocols and software, for example,secure shell (SSH), secure sockets layer (SSL) and transport layersecurity (TLS) can be used to promote security between the device 1 andthe communications interfaces or remote client devices 110 of theparticipants 200, 300 through N. Additional security (such as throughpassword-protected login sequencing or the like) may also be utilized.

Connection between the remote client devices 110 and the device 1 withinthe network 120 may be made using any suitable network interconnectionrules, a commonly-used example of which is the TCP/IP protocol fortransmitting packets of data over a wide or local area network. TCP isoften used in conjunction with a file transfer protocol (FTP) totransfer files between computers linked together by the internet. In oneconfiguration, a fantasy football league used to allow various fantasyfootball participants 200, 300 through N to play one or more fantasyfootball games in accordance with the present invention is set up as awebsite with links between the participants 200, 300 through N and thedevice 1 that is acting as a host. The participants 200, 300 through Ncan use their remote client devices 110 to select coaching staffs, aswell as to receive updated statistics or other relevant informationregarding the performance of their fantasy team.

Software (such as that which can be stored on the computer usable mediumdiscussed above) may come in various forms, including operating systemsoftware and application-specific software. An example of the former(such as Microsoft Windows) is that which allows the latter to make useof the I/O 100 and other hardware components within a computer such asdevice 1. Application specific software can run on top of the operatingsystem software, performing functions based on user input. Examples ofapplication specific software include word processing and software foruse in tracking the rankings of fantasy football participants in afantasy football league, the latter of which is of particular interestin the present context. Application specific software used for receivingand transmitting data can be loaded into one or both of the device 1 aswell as the remote client devices 110 of the fantasy participants 200,300 through N. Such software may include well-known web-browsingcapability (called browser software) as either operating system softwareor application specific software.

Programs such as that used to facilitate participation in one or morefantasy football games according to the present invention may beprovided by the device 1 upon an appropriate login sequence by a user ofthe remote client device 110 or as part of a downloadable package thatis provided to the user once that user becomes a member of acorresponding fantasy football league (such as through subscription orthe like). Such programs can be written in any well-knowninternet-compatible language, such as Java, Dynamic HTML, Active X, orthe like. These languages allow internet publishers to create multimediaweb pages of text, graphics, tables, buttons, images, sounds and videoseach identified by an HTML tag that define one or more of theabove-mentioned functions. Possible trader interfaces may include HTMLpages, Java applets and servlets, Java or Active Server pages, or otherforms of network-based GUIs known to those of skill in the art. In oneexample, traders connected through the internet can submit HTML requestsvia Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI), a Java application programminginterface for performing remote procedure calls, or Internet Inter-OrbProtocol (HOP), an implementation of the more abstract Global InternetInter-Orb Protocol (GIOP). Both RMI and IIOP can run on top of thestandard TCP/IP protocol.

Referring now to FIG. 2, in the remote client devices 110, theparticipants 200, 300 through N are provided with a window or screen1100 for logging into a particular league or (in cases where the leaguedoes not provide its own) to a statistical database in order toparticipate in one or more fantasy football games of the presentinvention. The window 1100 may include a header 1100A indicating awelcome banner or related greetings. Advertising may also be included inan appropriate field 1100E or related location in window 1100. Window1100 may also include an HTML login button 1100B for returning members,as well as other features, such as a contact button 1100C. A user (suchas participants 200, 300 through N) may log in through login button1100B only if that user has previously registered and has established anidentity within the fantasy league (i.e., is a member). An additionalbutton 1100F can be clicked to access information relating to how thefantasy football site is structured, including a discussion of howcoaching is quantified according to the present invention and how suchcoaching knowledge and play design contributes to the success or growthof a football organization. Button 1100F may also lead to a tutorial orrelated instruction or information link (not shown) that connects a userto an information page (not shown) that explains how to play the game,including how to equate certain on-field player performance statisticswith play designs and quantifiable coaching contributions. If theindividual participant is a member, once he or she clicks on the loginbutton 1100B, such user is then routed to a window 3100 such as thatshown in FIG. 4 and asked to enter an appropriate username and passwordin the appropriate fields 3100A and 3100B, as well as an enter or loginbutton 3100C. Additional links 3100D and 3100E can be clicked to assista participant who may have forgotten a username or password. Likewise, apassword verification button (not shown) may be included to ask the userto repeat the password to ensure that the user did not mistype it thefirst time.

If the user clicks on button 1100D, that user is routed to a new userlogin screen 2100, such as that shown in FIG. 3. As a threshold matter,the new user may first be asked to read terms and conditions of use.Such button (not shown) can be made to have a gatekeeper status suchthat further entry into the system is not permitted absent a “yes”answer to the user's agreement to the terms and conditions. Variousfields used to identify a new league member are shown, including firstname 2100A, last name 2100B, e-mail address 2100C, residence (i.e.,street) address 2100D, city 2100E, state 2100F, zip code 2100G (ifresident within the USA), country 2100H and telephone number 2100I. Itwill be appreciated by those skilled in the art that screen 2100 mayinclude additional or other information, and that such variations arewithin the scope of the present invention. Once all of the appropriatecategories are entered in, the user can click the login button 2100J tohave the information entered into the participant database 10 of device1. The Registration page 2100 also includes a link for “Terms andConditions” through button 2100K which sends a user to rules, rights andobligations (not shown). Acceptance of these terms may be made aprerequisite for completing the new member section depicted in FIG. 3,and concomitantly for membership in the fantasy league.

Referring next to FIG. 5, a homepage screen 4100 for active participantsin a fantasy football game or league of the present invention is shown.Various buttons may be used to provide information to the participant sothat he or she can manage his or her team in one or more fantasyfootball leagues or games. Button 4100A can be used to identify thestatus of a participant's account, including (in situations where theparticipants competes against one another for cash or other prizes) howmuch the participant has won, lost or has remaining of his or herinitial investment. Another button 4100B allows the participant tonavigate to a league standings screen 5100, such as that shown in FIG. 6and discussed in more detail below. In operation, screen 4100, whichforms part of the remote client device 110, in response to instructionfrom participant input, can perform numerous functions in order to allowa participant to take part in a fantasy football game or league of thepresent invention. For example, the participant (such as participant200) may decide which of the coaching staffs from within coaching staffdatabase 20 (which can be accessed by clicking on button 4100C of FIG.5) or player/roster database 40 (which can be accessed by clicking onbutton 4100D of FIG. 5) that the participant 200 will choose to haverepresent him or her in an upcoming fantasy game. Button 4100C providesa link to the participant's coaching staff (or staffs, if theparticipant has control over two or more fantasy staffs), which mayinclude the offensive coaching staff, defensive coaching staff, headcoach, special teams coaching staff or the like. Likewise, participant200 may be able to execute a trade, check fantasy league standings orperform other functions by communicating with device 1. The informationprovided to the participant that clicks on button 4100D may includeupdated data from statistical database 30 that is provided to theparticipant in graphical or related user-friendly format. As statedabove, statistical database 30 may be situated in RAM 70 (such as foruse in a general-purpose computer) or ROM 80 (such as for use in aspecial-purpose computer), or may be intermittently fed to device 1 orremote client device 110 through periodic updates from a data andinformation service. The list that is accessed by button 4100D may alsobe used to keep track of individual players or groups of players (suchas wide receivers, defensive line, running backs or the like). Thedevice 1 also includes the ability to send, receive and operate oninformation contained in statistical database 30; such information mayinclude contract identifier information (for security-related logondata), news or other such information that a fantasy participant mayfind useful. Examples of these can be found from various news anddatabase sources for schedules (button 4100E), a college footballdatabase (button 4100F) and a professional football (such as the NFL)database (button 4100G). The list that is accessed by button 4100H mayalso be used to trade individual players or groups of players (such aswide receivers, defensive line, running backs or the like) with otherparticipants. A comparable button 4100I may also be used to tradecoaches or coaching staffs. An additional button 4100J can be used toallow the participant to create a unique nickname that he or she can beidentified by with other participants in the fantasy league. Thesoftware resident on or otherwise used by device 1 may be similar to, orhave different features from that of the remote client device 110, solong as communication and related execution between the device 1 andremote client device 110 is not adversely impacted.

Referring next to FIG. 6, a running tally of the records of the variousparticipants in a given fantasy league can be presented by clicking onbutton 4100B in FIG. 5, thereby enabling at quick glance where thevarious participants making up the league stand relative to one anotherat any given time. This screen 5100 can show a list 5100A of the variousparticipants, such as by the aforementioned nickname, for example. Thenumber of participants is preferably (although not necessarily) suchthat each of the actual teams in the underlying league (such as the NFL,with its current thirty two teams) is fully represented evenly byparticipants in the fantasy league. In the example shown in column orlist 5100A, there are eight nicknamed participants, while eachparticipant's won-loss record is shown in column 5100B and a runningtotal of their corresponding coaching staff human capital H_(A) incolumn 5100C. If the NFL is used as the representative or underlyingactual league, then each of the participants may own four fantasy teamscorresponding to four of the actual NFL teams (in cases where ownershipif of an entire team or an entire team's coaching staff), or may owneight partial teams, such as those that are represented by offensive ordefensive coaching staffs (in cases where fantasy league is broken downinto just those two coaching staffs) or any other subset of players orcoaching staffs, such as line coaches, special teams coaches, headcoaches or the like. This is discussed in more detail below. It will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that these and other groupingsmay be made for the mutual convenience or interest of the variousfantasy league participants, and all such approaches are within thescope of the present invention. Likewise, it will be appreciated bythose skilled in the fantasy football art that other lists, reporting orrelated indicia may be presented in screen 5100 for the use or enjoymentof the participants.

In a preferred form, the fantasy football league, the number ofparticipants is an even number, and more particularly, divisible byfour. While such a number is not critical for proper operation of theleague, situations where the underlying actual football league (forexample, the NFL with thirty two teams) has a number divisible by fourmake it simpler to allow the coaching staffs (or portions thereof) ofeach actual team to be represented by each participant. For example, theleague may have eight participants; in this way, each participant wouldmimic the ownership of four fantasy coaching staffs. More particularly,each participant would mimic ownership of four offensive coaching staffsand four fantasy defensive coaching staffs that would correspond to theactual team offensive or defensive coaching staff. Drafting of suchfantasy coaching staffs may take place at the beginning of each actualfootball season, using a serpentine or other suitable drafting format.

In one form, each participant plays at least one fantasy offensivecoaching staff per week, while in another, each participant plays onefantasy offensive staff per week and one fantasy defensive staff perweek. In yet another form, each participant may also draft a coachingstaff representative of one or both of a kicking team and special teams.In the case where the game is played by only comparing opposing fantasyparticipants' offensive coaching staffs in a given week, eachparticipant's claimed metric will be a comparison of that participant'sselected offensive unit's H_(A) to that of the opposing participant'sselected offensive unit H_(A), where the higher of the two causes therespective participant to be declared the winner for that particularfantasy game. Likewise, in the case where each participant's fantasyteam is based on both offensive and defensive coaching staffs, eachparticipant's claimed metric will be the mathematical difference betweenthe selected offensive unit's H_(A) and the selected defensive unit'sH_(A); thus each participant's H_(A) (offense) minus H_(A) (defense)gives the participant an overall H_(A) score for the week. As mentionedabove, each participant's H_(A) (defense) can be determined by theoffensive performance of a team opposing that participant's selecteddefensive unit. In one form, this score is compared against one otherparticipant to determine a win and a loss for the week. In a preferredembodiment, each participant's wins and losses would be tallied up overthe course of the season, while tiebreakers among participants could bedetermined by the higher aggregate H_(A) over the season (or somerelated indicia of overall performance). Such performance could bemodified to accommodate the playoffs or bowl games, where provisionswould need to be made to account for teams that did not qualify forpost-season play. In such circumstance, the fantasy league could have acompetition that mimics post-season tournament play similar to thatwhich takes place in the NFL, where an elimination-style game format isadopted. In one form, the post-season competition could be between thetwo participants with the best record over the regular season (possiblysubject to the limitation discussed above if one participant's coachingstaffs are not available because the actual underlying football teamdidn't make it into the post-season play.

Selecting a kicking team can only hurt the participant, as kicks areexpected to be made (at least those within 50 yards). Likewise, coverageteams can only hurt the participant by giving up an unexpected score(but only if the opposing team scores); however, a 50 yard kick returnthat does not result in a touchdown is of no consequence.

Example

The foregoing is further elucidated by a particular example, employingactual statistics from the first week (Week 1) of the 2009-2010 NFLseason. In one form of playing the game between two participants P1 andP2, P1 has selected the Indianapolis Colts offensive coaching staff andthe Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coaching staff to form P1's fantasycoaching staff for the week. In addition, P1 selected the JacksonvilleJaguar kicking team and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coverage team. Theactual statistics from Week 1 of the 2009-2010 NFL season are shownbelow in Table 7.

TABLE 7 2009-2010 NFL Season Week 1 Selected Statistics TOs YRA ATT YDSTDx10 YPA (QCAPY) QCYPA H HY HA ∂HY ∂ ∂HA Pittsburgh 13 3 1.56 43 363 108.442 (.977) 7.697 .1502 (.0763) .2266 4.57 (59.835) <0 Tennessee 10 23.44 35 244 10 6.971 (.286) 6.971 .0417 (.1635) .2052 3.55 (21.714) <0Indianapolis 14 2 2.29 38 301 10 7.921 (.184) 8.000 .1955 (.0400) .23555.49 (138.338) <0 Jacksonville 12 0 4.38 28 122 0 4.357 (.286) 4.071(.3916) (.5115) .1198 1.64 (3.215) <0 New Orleans 45 3 4.49 34 358 6010.529 0 12.294 .8371 .4753 .3618 $ $ $ Detroit 27 3 1.65 37 205 0 5.541.189 5.352 (.2003) (.3578) .1575 2.16 (6.047) <0 Dallas 34 0 4.92 27 35330 13.074 .333 13.852 1.070 .6623 .4077 $ $ $ Tampa Bay 21 0 5.61 42 27610 6.571 0 6.810 .0176 (.1829) .2004 3.51 (19.215) <0 Denver 12 0 3.7528 243 10 8.679 (.571) 8.465 .2649 .0158 .2491 8.25 523.474 130.397Cincinnati 7 2 3.19 33 247 0 7.485 (.788) 6.697 .0007 (.1964) .1971 3.20(16.288) <0 Baltimore 38 1 4.83 43 303 30 7.047 (.093) 7.651 .1433(.0819) .2252 5.04 (61.587) <0 Kansas City 24 0 1.71 24 177 20 7.375(.750) 7.458 .1145 (.1050) .2195 4.12 (39.273) <0 NY Jets 24 1 4.52 31272 10 8.774 0 9.097 .3594 .0916 .2677 21.11 230.457 61.693 Houston 7 22.92 33 166 0 5.030 (.636) 4.394 (.3433) (.4727) .1293 1.76 (3.733) <0Minnesota 34 0 6.08 22 110 10 5.000 (1.136) 4.319 (.3547) (.4818) .1271(3.586) <0 Cleveland 20 2 4.45 35 205 10 5.857 (.743) 5.400 (.1931)(.3520) .1589 (6.316) <0 Atlanta 19 0 2.52 36 213 20 5.917 (.444) 6.028(.0992) (.2766) .1774 2.58 (9.329) <0 Miami 7 4 4.36 30 176 10 5.867(.433) 5.767 (.1382) (.3080) .1697 2.45 (7.951) <0 Philadelphia 38 25.78 29 102 20 3.517 (.690) 3.517 (.4745) (.5780) .1035 1.45 (2.516) <0Carolina 10 7 2.87 34 138 0 4.059 1.618 2.441 (.6353) (.7071) .0718 1.23(1.740) <0 NY Giants 23 2 3.32 29 256 10 8.828 (.276) 8.896 .3294 .0676.2618 9.85 145.827 38.178 Washington 17 2 4.05 26 211 10 8.115 (.923)7.577 .1322 (.0908) .2230 4.70 (51.829) <0 Seattle 28 3 4.91 36 279 307.750 0 8.583 .2826 .0300 .2526 10.22 340.616 86.040 St. Louis 0 1 4.2836 191 0 5.306 (.583) 4.723 (.2943) (.4333) .1390 1.89 (4.364) <0 SanFrancisco 20 1 0.84 31 209 10 6.742 (.871) 6.194 (.0745) (.2568) .18232.65 (10.322) <0 Arizona 16 2 2.35 44 288 10 6.545 (.659) 6.114 (.0864)(.2664) .1799 2.64 (9.902) <0 Green Bay 21 3.45 28 184 10 6.571 (1.214)5.715 (.1461) (.3143) .1682 (7.616) <0 Chicago 15 2.77 36 277 10 7.694(.306) 7.666 .1456 (.0801) .2256 (58.616) <0 New England 25 1 3.17 53378 20 7.132 (.189) 7.320 .0939 (.1215) .2155 33.378 <0 Buffalo 24 14.74 25 212 20 8.480 (1.04) 8.240 .2313 (.0112) .2425 (656.524) <0 SanDiego 24 3.35 36 252 10 7.000 (.333) 6.945 .0378 (.1666) .2044 (21.047)<0 Oakland 20 4.63 32 225 10 7.031 .219 7.125 .0647 (.1450) .2097(26.840) <0From the table, it can be seen that the actual (i.e., on-field)offensive H_(A) for the Colts was 0.2355, while the actual defensiveH_(A) for the Steelers was 0.2052, where this latter number is takenfrom the offensive H_(A) value from Steelers' on-field opponent thatweek, which was the Tennessee Titans. Participant P1's net H_(A) (thedifference between the offensive and defensive values) is 0.0303.Participant P1's offensive coaching staff is also burdened by the twoturnovers that the Colts had in their Week 1 actual game. Likewise,Special Teams breakdowns (i.e., failures of the play of the kicking unitand the coverage unit) was zero, as the Tampa Bay opponent did notreturn a kickoff or punt for a touchdown, nor did the Jacksonville placekicker miss a field goal attempt from inside of 50 yards. As such,participant P1 suffered two total breakdowns that can (but need not) beused against the net H_(A). Even if the breakdowns are not used toadjust the net H_(A), they provide a valuable tool in explaining why ateam with superior play design (i.e., coaching) did not achieve anon-field outcome commensurate with such play design advantage. LikewiseP2 has selected the New Orleans Saints offensive coaching staff, theTennessee Titans defensive coaching staff, the Denver Broncos kickingteam and the Dallas Cowboys coverage team to form P2's fantasy coachingstaff for the week. Referring again to the actual statistics from Week1, participant P2's net H_(A) is 0.3618 minus 0.2266, for a net H_(A) of0.1352. Because New Orleans committed three turnovers in Week 1, andthere were no other breakdowns from the kicking or coverage teams, P2'stotal breakdowns in Week2 were three. As such, P2 enjoyed a 0.1049 edgein H_(A) over P1, while being negative one in breakdowns, which may ormay not have been sufficient to overcome his or her H_(A) advantage. Inany event, it is the design edge (which, for the reasons discussedthroughout, are attributable to the coaching) that is of overarchingconcern. As such, in a fantasy football game that pitted P1 versus P2,P2 would have prevailed in Week 1 and been awarded a win for that week.Such head-to-head competition can be repeated throughout each week ofthe NFL season.

The foregoing detailed description and preferred embodiments therein arebeing given by way of illustration and example only; additionalvariations in form or detail will readily suggest themselves to thoseskilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be understood to belimited only by the appended claims.

1. A fantasy football game adapted to be played by a plurality ofparticipants, said game comprising quantifying coaching based on resultsderived from at least one actual football game.
 2. The fantasy footballgame of claim 1, wherein a participant from among said plurality ofparticipants who achieves a highest measure of said quantifying coachingis declared a winner of said game.
 3. The fantasy football game of claim2, wherein each of said plurality of participants participates in saidfantasy football game with a fantasy football team that comprises atleast one of a fantasy offensive coaching staff that corresponds to anoffensive coaching staff of an actual professional football team and afantasy defensive coaching staff that corresponds to a defensivecoaching staff of an actual professional football team.
 4. The fantasyfootball game of claim 3, wherein a measure of said quantifying coachingcomprises a difference in a fantasy offensive coaching staff metricrepresentative of said participant's fantasy offensive coaching staffand a fantasy defensive coaching staff metric representative of saidparticipant's fantasy defensive coaching staff.
 5. The fantasy footballgame of claim 4, wherein said difference comprises a difference betweenan adjusted yards per pass attempt that is achieved by an offensive unitperformance that corresponds to said first participant's fantasyoffensive coaching staff in said at least one actual football game andan adjusted yards per pass attempt that is achieved by a defensive unitperformance that corresponds to said first participant's fantasydefensive coaching staff in said at least one actual game against anoffensive unit in said at least one actual football game that isrepresented by an opposing participant's fantasy offensive coachingstaff.
 6. The fantasy football game of claim 5, wherein each of saidadjusted yards per pass attempt are determined according to the formula:${QCYPA} = \frac{{PY} + ( {10 \times {PT}} ) - {SY}}{PA}$where QCYPA represents adjusted yards per pass attempt, PY is aparticular offensive unit's passing yards accumulated during said actualfootball game, PT is a number of touchdown passes accumulated by saidparticular offensive unit during said actual football game, SY is anumber of yards lost by said particular offensive unit when itsquarterback is sacked attempting to pass during said actual footballgame, and PA is a number of pass attempts by said particular offensiveunit during said actual football game.
 7. The fantasy football game ofclaim 6, wherein said difference that makes up said measure of saidquantifying coaching for each of said fantasy offensive coaching staffsis further adjusted to account for at least one of (a) turnovers, (b)failed field goal attempts within a predetermined distance, (c)touchdowns allowed on any special teams play such as a punt or kickoffand (d) touchdowns scored by an opposing participant's defense.
 8. Thefantasy football game of claim 1, wherein a score for a particularparticipant from among said plurality of participants is determined bysubtracting an opposing participant's achieved fantasy offensivecoaching staff value from a value attained by said particularparticipant's fantasy offensive coaching staff.
 9. The fantasy footballgame of claim 3, wherein a combination of said fantasy offensive anddefensive coaching staffs may correspond to a respective coaching staffof a single actual professional football franchise or a compositecoaching staff made up of respective offensive and defensive coachingstaffs of two or more actual professional football franchises.
 10. Amethod of participating in a fantasy football game, said methodcomprising: selecting a fantasy team coaching staff that corresponds toat least a portion of an actual football team coaching staff; anddetermining a participant's fantasy team score by correlatingperformance indicia of said at least a portion of an actual footballteam coaching staff involved in its respective at least one actualfootball game with a score value of a respective fantasy team coachingstaff.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said correlating performanceindicia comprises calculating a difference in performance indiciabetween a first participant's fantasy team offensive coaching staff anda second participant's fantasy team offensive coaching staff.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, wherein at least one of said first and secondparticipants' fantasy team offensive coaching staff performance indiciacomprises an adjusted yards per pass attempt that is achieved by arespective offensive unit in said at least one actual football game,wherein said adjusted yards per pass attempt is determined according tothe formula:${QCYPA} = \frac{{PY} + ( {10 \times {PT}} ) - {SY}}{PA}$where QCYPA is a respective one of said first and second adjusted yardsper pass attempt, PY is a particular offensive unit's passing yardsaccumulated during said actual football game, PT is a number oftouchdown passes accumulated by said particular offensive unit duringsaid actual football game, SY is a number of yards lost by saidparticular offensive unit when its quarterback is sacked attempting topass during said actual football game, and PA is a number of passattempts by said particular offensive unit during said actual footballgame.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein said adjusted yards per passattempt is offset by subtracting a value for at least one of turnovers,failed field goal attempts within a predetermined distance, touchdownsallowed on any special teams play such as a punt or kickoff andtouchdowns scored by an opposing participant's defense.
 14. The methodof claim 10, wherein said fantasy team coaching staff comprises at leastone of a fantasy team offensive staff that corresponds to an offensivecoaching staff of an actual professional football team and a fantasydefensive coaching staff that corresponds to a defensive coaching staffof an actual professional football team.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein said correlating performance indicia comprises correlatingperformance indicia of both said offensive and defensive coachingstaffs, where said offensive coaching staff performance indiciacomprises adjusted yards per pass attempt achieved by an actual teamthat is representative of said offensive coaching staff in said at leastone actual football game, and where said defensive coaching staffperformance indicia comprises adjusted yards per pass attempt achievedby a team opposing an actual team that is representative of saiddefensive coaching staff in said at least one actual football game. 16.The method of claim 10, further comprising: comparing a fantasy teamscore for each of said plurality of participants whose respectivefantasy team coaching staffs are matched up against each other in saidactual football game; and awarding a victory to said participant with ahigher said fantasy team score.
 17. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising configuring a computer-based system to automate at least oneof said selecting a fantasy team coaching staff and determining aparticipant's fantasy team score, said computer-based network systemcomprising a computer configured to access data corresponding to atleast one of said fantasy team coaching staff performance indicia andsaid score values on a storage medium and perform said determining suchthat said computer can communicate to a remote client device accessibleby said participant over a communication link.
 18. The method of claim10, wherein said participating in a fantasy football game comprisescomparing said determined fantasy team scores among participants in afantasy football league.
 19. An article of manufacture comprising acomputer usable medium having computer readable program code embodiedtherein for providing a virtual football game to a plurality ofparticipants in a fantasy football league where each participantrepresented in said virtual football game by a fantasy coaching staffthat is in turn representative of an actual coaching staff for an actualunderlying football game such that statistics achieved by a footballteam playing for said actual coaching staff are imputed to said eachparticipant through said fantasy coaching staff, said computer readableprogram code in said article of manufacture comprising: computerreadable program code portion for causing a computer to accept saidachieved statistics for said each participant; and computer readableprogram code portion for causing said computer to determine a fantasyteam score for said each participant.
 20. The article of manufacture ofclaim 19, wherein said computer readable program code further comprisescomputer readable program code portion for notifying a participant fromamong said participants who achieves a highest fantasy team score. 21.The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein said computer readableprogram code in said article of manufacture further comprises computerreadable program code portion for calculating a quantifiable measure ofsaid fantasy coaching staff's contribution to said statistics.
 22. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 21, wherein said quantifiable measure ofsaid fantasy coaching staff's contribution to said statistics comprisesan adjusted yards per pass attempt achieved by an offensive unit in saidactual underlying football game.
 23. The article of manufacture of claim22, wherein said adjusted yards per pass attempt is determined accordingto the formula:${QCYPA} = \frac{{PY} + ( {10 \times {PT}} ) - {SY}}{PA}$where QCYPA represents adjusted yards per pass attempt, PY is aparticular offensive unit's passing yards accumulated during said actualfootball game, PT is a number of touchdown passes accumulated by saidparticular offensive unit during said actual football game, SY is anumber of yards lost by said particular offensive unit when itsquarterback is sacked attempting to pass during said actual footballgame, and PA is a number of pass attempts by said particular offensiveunit during said actual football game.
 24. The article of manufacture ofclaim 19, wherein said computer usable medium comprises at least one ofa hard disk drive, compact disk, digital video disk, floppy disk andflash.
 25. The article of manufacture of claim 19, wherein said computerreadable program code is configured to access a database that includesstatistics from at least one of said actual underlying football game.